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Cannabinoids Found in Non-Cannabis Plant Woolly Umbrella
Cannabinoids: They’re not just for cannabis anymore.
Helichrysum umbraculigerum, or the woolly umbrella plant, is a velvety yellow perennial herb native to South Africa, and Israeli researchers recently discovered that the plant, which is definitively not a part of the cannabis family, happens to produce a number of cannabinoids that, until now, were believed to belong exclusively to the cannabis and hemp plants.
The recent discovery could open new avenues for cannabinoid medicines and treatments. The study, titled “Turning a new leaf on cannabinoids,” was conducted by researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science and published in the journal Nature Plants earlier this month.
Cannabis and the Woolly Umbrella Plant
Researchers have studied cannabinoids and their potential uses for decades. The most well-known cannabinoid tends to be THC, though there are plenty of others that have gained prominence over the years, have little-to-no psychoactive effects and could assist in treating a variety of symptoms and conditions.
While cannabis is known to produce more than 100 different cannabinoids, the research team identified more than 40 cannabinoids found in the woolly umbrella. They also shared the biochemical steps the plant takes as it produces these compounds and how these steps can be reproduced in a laboratory, to synthesize existing cannabinoids or potentially engineer new ones that don’t exist in nature.
“We have found a major new source of cannabinoids and developed tools for their sustained production, which can help explore their enormous therapeutic potential,” said study leader Dr. Shirley Berman of the Weizmann Institute of Science.
The woolly umbrella plant is a relative of daisies, lettuce and sunflowers. It can reach up to one meter in height and is often used to make garden borders. It’s also been known to be burned in folk rituals to release intoxicating fumes, which hints that there might be more under the surface.
More than four decades ago, German scientists also found evidence that the woolly umbrella contains cannabinoids, though modern studies have failed to reproduce those findings until now. In fact, the research team launched the study of the woolly umbrella specifically to revisit its relationship to cannabinoids and larger potential as a medical aid.
A New Frontier for Cannabinoids?
The research team used state-of-the-art technology to confirm those early reports. Specifically, they sequenced the entire woolly umbrella genome and used advanced analytical chemistry to identify the cannabinoids it contains. Researchers were also able to reveal the precise structure of more than a dozen of the observed cannabinoids, along with other related metabolites.
They found that the woolly umbrella primarily manufactures cannabis in its leaves, which could be a benefit compared to cannabis, which makes cannabinoids in the shorter-lived, sometimes challenging-to-harvest flower clusters. Regardless, researchers found many commonalities between the two plants; particularly, the enzymes used in each step of cannabinoid production belong to the same families.
Researchers found that six cannabinoids found in the woolly umbrella are identical to those in cannabis. THC and CBD were not among them, though CBG, or cannabigerol, was. CBG has increasingly grown in popularity, as research has continued to reveal its potential therapeutic benefits. Similar to CBD, the cannabinoid also lacks the mood-altering effects that create a “high.”
With cannabis plants specifically, CBG is considered the main precursor to many popular cannabinoids. Namely, THCA, CBDA and CBCA all start as CBG’s acidic form, CBGA, which often leaves little CBG for harvest among mature plants. Growers have explored workarounds to maximize CBG production, but the woolly umbrella could pave the way to another solution.
A Promising Finding for Future Exploration
Additionally, researchers noted that there is an ecological point of view to further examine. Scientists still don’t fully understand why plants produce cannabinoids, though some evidence suggests it may help to deter predators or offer protection from ultraviolet rays.
“The fact that in the course of evolution two genetically unrelated plants independently developed the ability to make cannabinoids suggests that these compounds perform important ecological functions,” said Professor Asaph Aharoni, whose lab was used for the study. “More research is needed to determine what these functions are.”
Moving forward, the study findings may allow scientists to engineer cannabinoids that don’t exist in nature, allowing for better binding to human cannabinoid receptors or even specific therapeutic effects. The cannabinoids specific to the woolly umbrella plant could also hold untapped potential.
“The next exciting step would be to determine the properties of the more than 30 new cannabinoids we’ve discovered, and then to see what therapeutic uses they might have,” Berman said.
Source: https://hightimes.com/study/cannabinoids-found-in-non-cannabis-plant-woolly-umbrella/
New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Four marijuana companies, including a multistate operator, have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in which they allege the federal MJ prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act is no longer constitutional.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, retailer Canna Provisions, Treevit delivery service CEO Gyasi Sellers, cultivator Wiseacre Farm and MSO Verano Holdings Corp. are all harmed by “the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on cultivating, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing intrastate marijuana.”
Verano is headquartered in Chicago but has operations in Massachusetts; the other three operators are based in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the “Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession, and distribution of marijuana pursuant to state law.”
The companies want the case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
They hired prominent law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to represent them.
The New York-based firm’s principal is David Boies, whose former clients include Microsoft, former presidential candidate Al Gore and Elizabeth Holmes’ disgraced startup Theranos.
Similar challenges to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) have failed.
One such challenge led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2005.
In Gonzalez vs. Raich, the highest court in the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to outlaw marijuana federally, even though state laws allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
In the 18 years since that ruling, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use marijuana and the federal government has allowed a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry to thrive.
Since both Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, currently headed by Garland, have declined to intervene in state-licensed marijuana markets, the key facts that led to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling “no longer apply,” Boies said in a statement Thursday.
“The Supreme Court has since made clear that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate purely intrastate commerce,” Boies said.
“Moreover, the facts on which those precedents are based are no longer true.”
Verano President Darren Weiss said in a statement the company is “prepared to bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to align federal law with how Congress has acted for years.”
While the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana would help solve marijuana operators’ federal tax woes, neither rescheduling nor modest Congressional reforms such as the SAFER Banking Act “solve the fundamental issue,” Weiss added.
“The application of the CSA to lawful state-run cannabis business is an unconstitutional overreach on state sovereignty that has led to decades of harm, failed businesses, lost jobs, and unsafe working conditions.”
Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
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